“Beauty and the Beast” may have been put in book form by a Frenchwoman in the 18th century. But as Disney and lyricist Howard Ashman reminded us, it’s a “tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme.” Researchers have found its plot elements and themes in stories from many cultures, some of which push its origins back some 4,000 years.

One of those “origin” lineages is Scandinavian. So California filmmaker Max Gold is on firm “Morphology of the Folk Tale” footing in setting “Belle,” his no-dancing-teapots version of the story, in a stark “Seventh Seal” (Icelandic) landscape.

It’s a violent variation of the story somewhat more in keeping with the grim darkness of the original tale, ignoring the “Disney” versions and the softening up the famous 90s’ TV adaptation gave it. But as recognizable as its themes and story beats are, as striking as the settings might be, “Belle” is a clumsy film, uncertain of its tone, unsatisfying in its performances and handling of those themes.

Andrea Snædal‘s Belle is a farm girl living with a widowed father (Gudmundur Thorvaldsson) who’d like nothing better than to marry her off to one of the local lumps. But she’s not having it.

Where they live, a legend has become more than local lore. Men poking around the cave where a rose of immortality is kept find themselves slaughtered and eaten by The Beast. The location of that magical rose seems well-known. But its origins, a “curse” rendered unto a man by a jilted witch-lover, are not.

That’s why that witch (Hana Vagnerová) is our narrator. She can set the story straight.

When Belle’s father grows deathly ill, she goes hunting for the rose. The cave where it is kept is guarded by a mute and blind young torch-bearer. Belle won’t be dissuaded. She meets the man who sometimes transforms into a beast (Ingi Hrafn Hilmarsson) and begs the rose off him. He seems nice enough, “kind” and all that.

With a little help from the conjure-woman, Papa is cured. But the “spell” that fixes him “has an ‘unless.'” It won’t last “unless” Belle goes to stay with the beast, and over Dad’s objections, she does.

His “curse” stares them both in the face, and in this version “I have to fall in love” is “the rule” that will break it. That’s a switch from the traditional point of the story, that the Beast has to be sweet enough for someone to fall for him.

The fetching, spirited Belle seems like a cute catch. But not so fast, there, fairytale fans!

The film, in English with bits of Icelandic dialogue and a folk song, reaches for a lighter touch as Belle tries to “test” ideas about the “rules,” the things that turn the rugged hermit into The Beast. Throwing rocks at his head doesn’t provoke him. Tying him up and pouring hot candle wax may have its kinky fans, but it does nothing to change man into Beast.

The film never quite finds its sweet spot. The violence mixed with flippant modern vernacular is never quite darkly funny, and the film leaves one puzzled about Belle’s agenda, or the Witch’s. The Beast’s, at least, we understand.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say Gold doesn’t “get” the meaning of the tale, whose best film version might still be the 1946 Jean Cocteau French classic. But at least the animated “Disney version” was moving.

This one just meanders about a striking landscape and struggles to strike a chord, or at other times, to simply make sense.

Rating: unrated, graphic violence, nudity

Cast: Andrea Snædal, Ingi Hrafn Hilmarsson, Gudmundur Thorvaldsson and Hana Vagnerová

Credits: Scripted and directed by Max Gold. A Level 33 release.

Running time: 1:30